Stephen Lawrence

It has taken over 18 years to bring two murderers to justice for the killing of Stephan Lawrence, just a little longer than he was alive. The killing and the struggle for justice that followed revealed the depth of racism in the UK, to the extent that the Macpherson inquiry had to develop the concept of ‘institutional racism’ to adequately describe what had happened.

Just a few days before the guilty verdict in the Stephen Lawrence trial, an Indian student, Anuj Bidve, was shot and killed in Manchester leaving another family to grieve and us to reflect that little may have changed.

Simon Hattenstone writing in the Guardian catches the ongoing issues for us well and institutional racism and racism is not just an issue for the police. Political parties need to find time to take account of these dreadful events. Carol Ann Duffy had a loving but chilling poem in the Guardian on Saturday simply called ‘Stephen Lawrence’, which should be read widely.